All IPL matches played at Kanpur have been won by the chasing team.

Betting Tips

Back Sunrisers Hyderabad to win. (1.8 at the time of writing on Betfair).

Match Overview

The Sunrisers have won all 4 matches they have played against the Gujarat Lions. In the match earlier this season in Hyderabad the Sunrisers dominated the game. They restricted The Lions to 135 for 7 in their 20 overs. Rashid Khan took 3 for 19 and Bhuvneshwar Kumar returned figures of 2 for 21. The Sunrisers then knocked off the runs with 27 balls to spare thanks to Warner and Henriques.

The Lions have had a poor season after finishing top of the league last IPL. They only have 4 wins from 13 matches. They have been ravaged by injuries to key players and never had any momentum this year.

At the start of the season they were missing Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja. Bravo never recovered and Jadeja has been poor with the ball. Andrew Tye and Brendon McCullum both got injured during the season leaving them having to field only 3 overseas players.

Despite these issues the Lions have batted well in their last 2 matches. They chased down 189 against Punjab on Sunday and scored 195 at Kanpur against Delhi. Unfortunately, 195 was not enough for their bowlers against Delhi on a very good pitch on Wednesday.

The Sunrisers are positioned just in the play-off zone in 4th place. They have King XI Punjab just 1 point behind them in 5th. If they win this match they will secure a place in the play-offs. They have had a mixed season winning 7 matches and losing 5.

In their last match they choose to play Mohammed Nabi instead of Kane Williamson as an overseas player. This strengthened their bowling but weakened their batting. Nabi returned excellent figures of 1 for 13 off his 4 overs. The wicket was the dangerous Lendl Simmons in the second over of the match. Mumbai were reduced to 138 for 7 in their 20 overs. The Sunrisers knocked the runs off with 8 balls to spare.

The Sunrisers have the top 2 run scorers in the IPL in David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan. They also have the top wicket taker in Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The Sunrisers have been clever picking Afghans and Australians as their overseas players as they will all be available for the play-offs.

3 IPL matches and 1 T20 International has been played at Kanpur. On Wednesday the pitch looked very easy to bat on and the outfield was lightning quick. It looked like a par score there was around 190. The team batting second has won all 4 T20 matches at this ground. This is a day match so the dew should play no part.

The Sunrisers are 22 Cricsq rating points above the Lions. The competition is alive for them whereas the Lions are just playing for pride. The Sunrisers need a win to guarantee they go through to the play-offs. In early prices on Betfair the Sunrisers are favourites at 1.8 and The Lions are 2.26. I have backed the Sunrisers to win.

Gujarat Lions

Batting

Dwayne Smith and Ishan Kishan open the batting The Lions. They have been getting them off to a quick start recently. Smith has 185 runs this IPL with a strike rate of 150. He scored a brilliant 74 off 39 balls in the win against Punjab. Ishan Kishan has 216 runs striking at 130.

Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik bat at 3 and 4. They are The Lions top run scorers this season. Raina has 440 runs with a strike rate of 146. Karthik has 361 runs. He also has a useful strike rate at 140. They shared a brilliant partnership of over 100 against Dehli.

The middle order consists of Aaron Finch, Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner. Finch scored 69 off 39 balls in Kanpur on Wednesday. He has 297 runs with a high strike rate of 168. Jadeja has 138 runs from 9 innings with a strike rate of 140. Faulkner has been disappointing. He only has 46 runs with a terrible strike rate of 98.

Bowling

Dhawal Kulkarni has bowled well since he returned to the side 2 matches ago. He has taken 2 for 54 in 8 overs. In the 4 matches he played early in the season he was very expensive.

Kulkarni is joined in the seam bowling department by Basil Thampi, James Faulkner and Predeep Sangwan. They have all been expensive. Thampi has 11 wickets with an economy rate of 9.6. Faulkner has 6 wickets but has gone at 9.8 and over. Sangwan has 5 wickets from 4 matches with an economy rate of 10.3.

Jadeja is the top spinner in the side. He has been very disappointing with the ball this season. He has just 5 wickets from 11 matches. He has gone at 9.4 an over. Ankit Soni is the second spinner. He has 2 wickets from 5 matches with a decent economy rate of 7.1.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Batting

David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan open the batting for The Sunrisers. They are the top 2 run scorers in the IPL this season. Warner has 535 runs with a strike rate of 147. Dhawan has 450 runs with a strike rate of 128. They started the season scoring slowly but they have increased their strike rates in recent matches.

Kane Williamson has batted at 3 for much of the season. He was left out in the last match for Nabi. Williamson has 232 runs from 6 innings. He has a strike rate of 162. Moises Henriques has batted at 3 when Williamson has not played. He has 273 runs with a strike rate of 136.

Yuvraj Singh usually bats at 4. He has 243 runs with a strike rate of 145. He has played several useful innings.

The middle order options are Henriques, Vijay Shanker, Deepak Hooda, Mohammad Nabi and Naman Ojha. Henriques adds stability when he plays in the middle order. Shanker has 16 runs from 2 innings. Hooda has 63 from 6 innings. Ojha and Nabi have not had many chances to bat.

Bowling

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the top wicket taker in the IPL. He has 23 wickets with an economy rate of 6.9 an over. Siddarth Kaul has joined him in the pace attack. He has 15 wickets from just 8 matches. He has gone at 8.4 an over.

Mohammed Siraj and Moises Henriques also bowl seam. Siraj has 6 wickets from 5 matches but has been expensive going at 9.5 an over. Henriques is usually used as a sixth bowler and rarely bowls 4 overs. He has just 1 wicket and has gone at 10.4 an over.

Rashid Khan is top spinner in the side. He has 14 wickets with an economy rate of 6.5 an over. Mohammad Nabi has only had 2 matches so far. He has 2 wickets from 2 matches with a brilliant economy rate of 5.1 an over. Bipul Sharma is another spinning option. He has 3 wickets from 6 matches with an economy rate of 7.9.